Such great content. I've seen your other videos you talked about picking up at least one client per month. Let's say I have 12 after a year but that doesn't account for churn. In your experience, what is a good annual client retention rate? I have seen SEO agencies say they churn as high as 50% per year. Ouch!
Great video, Lee. For this style of website option (the $1500 plus $375/month) do you own the website or does the client? How do you ensure the client actually does the month-to-month portion?
For me, the client always owns everything except my plugin and theme licenses. If they cancel, I'll remove the licenses I bought for whatever WordPress plugins and themes I'm using. Then I'll archive/backup the site, and they can take it anywhere they want. The site will still work with out the plugin licenses. If they want continued support and updates, they can buy their own licenses from the plugin developers. I ensure that the client keeps the month-to-month portion going by showing them the specific results we're getting every month. I never lock anyone into long-term contracts. I've found that I close far more clients by letting them know they can cancel anytime they want. Also, in the rare case that a client needs to cancel, it is usually because something really bad has happened, and they just have to cancel. One time, one of my clients was in a terrible car accident. He called and said he wasn't going to be able to work and, therefore, couldn't serve the leads I was generating for him. So, what if he was on a 12-month contract or something. What am I going to do? Insist he keeps paying me anyway? So, by not having contracts: 1) I land more clients since they don't feel locked in (lowers perceived risk) 2) I wouldn't enforce the contract even if I had it Instead of contracts, I just let the results speak for themselves.
Hey Lee, thanks for the great video! When you discuss goals to pursue, what kind of reasoning do you go through with your clients? How are they evaluated? I mean, why have goals like 'increase revenue by x or y,' etc.? I’d be very interested in understanding this.
This is a great question. Here's the short answer. I need to know how much revenue we need to create in order to calibrate the power of my marketing campaigns. I business that only wants to get 5 new customers per month won't need to spend nearly as much to achieve that goal as a business that wants 50 new clients per month. Here's the nerdy math answer: When I set up a lead acquisition funnel for a client, I will know the following stats: - Cost-per-click on ads - ex. $2.00 per click - Landing page conversion rate (traffic to email opt-in) - 20% - Email nurturing conversion rate (email list to call) - 10% - Close rate on calls - 25% Now I can do some math. I use a conversion rate constant R which is the product of multiplying together all of the conversion rates in the funnel. 0.2 x 0.1 x 0.25 = 0.005 Now I know how many clients I'll get from any given amount of traffic (visitors): Visitors x R = Clients 1000 visitors x 0.005 = 5 clients Suppose I want to know how much traffic I need for a given number of clients. I just solve for Visitors: Clients / R = Visitors If I need to generate 50 clients then... 50 clients / 0.005 = 10,000 visitors If I know the average cost per click is $2.00, then I know it will cost $20,000 in ads to generate 50 clients. If a client is worth $1,000 then we're spending $20k to make $50k. That's a 2.5x ROI. Now, suppose I can bump up the call conversion rate from 25% to 50% by getting more qualified leads. That makes my conversion rate constant R become: 0.2 x 0.1 x 0.5 = 0.01 Now, if I need to generate 50 clients... 50 clients / 0.01 = 5,000 visitors 5000 visitors at $2 per click is just $10,000. That $10k still generates $50k in new clients (50 clients x $1k value per client). I freaking love this stuff. It's SOOOO fun because small changes have huge impacts. But, back to your question, it all starts with how many clients your client wants to generate. That means they need to think about their capacity so that you know how hard to hit the ball.
Hi Lee, thanks for another awesome video! It really cleared up custom proposals. I’ve got a few questions: - What’s the biggest difference between a solution-first and a custom proposal? - Should pricing and packages shift for different clients within the same niche, or is it better to keep them the same? - When’s the perfect moment to drop the $500 setup package from your past series-like, is there a sweet spot? Thanks again, your insights always hit the mark!
Great Questions! 1) Solution First vs Custom The biggest difference is that a Solution First project starts with you already knowing what the solution is and looking for clients who want the results your solution creates. A custom project is exactly the opposite. You get the client/lead first and then try to figure out a solution that works for them. Custom projects are solution last which is exactly the opposite of solution first. 2) Once you have the solution defined, you normally keep the prices the same for all your clients. The solution is the same. The clients are in roughly the same situation. Everything is basically the same, so the prices stay basically the same as well. There is some nuance to this, but you don't normally change your prices on a per-client basis. 3) I'm not sure I understand this question about dropping the $500 setup package. Can you elaborate on that a little more to make sure I'm actually answering the question you're asking?
@@DoubleStack Thanks, Lee! Your explanation of Solution First vs. Custom really hit home, makes total sense now. I also appreciate the clarity on keeping pricing consistent across clients once the solution is defined. As for my third question, I was referring to the $500 setup + $375/mo maintenance plan entry-level package you discussed in your earlier series. I was wondering when it's best to offer that package versus something more customized or higher-tier. Is there a specific type of client or scenario where you find it works best, or do you usually start with a different approach? Thanks again for all the insights-you’ve been a huge help!
Hi Lee, awesome content and info following you for quite som time now. Just to confirm, what commes in that part of the monthly payment? 375, 850, 1200/month? Does the client pay for the cost of the running ads or this is included in those monthly payments? And how do you present/sell that part?
The client pays directly for the ad distribution. They have their credit cards on file with Google. They only pay me for my management of the ad campaigns. I feel like it is important to disconnect my costs from the cost of the ads because my work/time is usually inversely proportional to the ad spend. In the beginning, the ad spend is really low while I'm optimizing the landing page and funnel. Once we've got the conversion rates where we want them, I don't touch anything, and we crank up the ad spend. When the ads fatigue, I'll start a new campaign with a low ad spend. Test and optimize. Then crank the spend when everything is dialed in. And so on goes the cycle. When presenting this, I'll tell the client what my recommended as spend is to get started. Once we've got the funnels dialed in I'll recommend that the client approve a boost their spend.
@@FreelanceFadi I’m helping my son start up his agency. I landed him his first client last week. We are working on everything together and it is so much fun! It’s really cool that my own son is a DoubleStacker. 🥳
Hi Lee, great video, it really got my ideas flowing. When I onboard clients for a website project, I ask them to sign a digital contract / agreement (WP E-Signature) to give me some protection. I read in one of your replies that you don't lock the customer into any contract, which is great, but do you ask the client to sign any type of agreement should things get sour?
For projects that are this size (up to maybe $25k/year), I don't bother with formally signed contracts. I do put a lot of effort into making sure everyone understands what's going on and who is responsible for what. But I don't get myself overextended. I generally get paid for the work I'm doing as I'm doing it. If the client needs to cancel, I can just stop working on their stuff. I almost never do a ton of work upfront and then essentially let the client finance that work by paying for it over months of time. I also do everything I can to keep things from not going sour: - I only work with clients I like - I work with clients who allow me to lead their marketing (not implement their orders) - I track my results (leads, traffic, etc.) - I insist on live monthly status meetings where I show the previous month's results and present the next month's goals This is a situation where distance does NOT make the heart grow fonder. If you fade off into the background, clients begin to think you're not doing anything.
I'm assuming you mean as a web designer, you want to onboard clients in trade businesses instead of a personal trainer (health and fitness) client. The proposal structure works exactly the same with the same five parts. The only difference is in the details of what goes in each part. For example, instead of an online nutrition course/membership you'd want to think of something like a VIP membership that includes maintenance and ongoing service. For example, if you're working with an HVAC business, they could offer a VIP program that their customers can subscribe to on a monthly or annual basis that includes annual service/tune-ups, air filters, and discounts on emergency visits. The overall structure is the same, it's just the details that shift. In DoubleStack, I'm able to write a few of these with you and walk you through the process for your actual leads/prospects. Then, we can roleplay your presentation so you can practice your pitch. Once you do it a few times, it starts to become pretty natural. It's so much fun!
I know it's result driven, but I'm concerned how many website pages that you need to build to get the result? $1500 seems ok for a one pager, but if you need 5 pages with custom design to ensure it is nice and work with the strategy, how can you charge more for the initial set up? It seems like a lot of work to set up a system like this so I just want to know if that cost is realistic. I'm very close to join your Double Stack program.
Hey, Eric! There is nothing wrong with increasing your price if you know you need to build more pages. But, instead of starting with the number of pages, I like to start with the big picture in mind - everything from how new people will discover my client all the way through to how they become a paying client. This covers the full customer journey. Once I know that, I can figure out what pages I'm going to need in order to implement that customer journey. I tend to think in terms of funnels rather than page counts. I'll also spend ridiculous amounts of time on a single landing page. That means the time/cost is not tied very closely to page count as I might spend 20 hours testing and optimizing one landing page. Therefore, I like to offer three different packages. One package is the "all in" package where I do as much as I can as fast as possible to get the results as soon as I can. This package would have the highest initial price. If that's too much for the client, I'll have lower-tier packages where I take some of the stuff I was going to set up all at once and spread that setup across time to reduce the initial upfront cost. So, instead of building out three full funnels all at once, maybe I'll just build one per month over the next three months - or something like that. So, I'm never reducing the overall power of the project. I'm not watering down the outcome. I'm just stretching the timeline.
It includes a couple of traffic engines like social/organic traffic from stuff like your Google Business Profile and Facebook page and probably at least on PPC ad campaign. It also includes building, optimizing, and managing all the steps in the customer journey from first discovery to paying client. That means we need some way to capture leads from the traffic. I'd probably start with an email opt-in. Then we need to nurture those leads so they book calls. That's usually done with an email drip campaign. Since all of that stuff fatigues over time, you're constantly fiddling with it and creating new/fresh stuff.
Some clients prefer result- based payment methods.. Once we explain this marketing plan, if the client says if you can give us 20-25 leads within the next 30- 60 days. Then they can choose us.. How can we handle these situations..?Do you work with that type of client?
Ads are not included in this package. All the traffic comes from organic sources like Google Business Profile/Google Maps, local searches, social media, etc. When it is time to run ads, we generally recommend local clients start with an ad spend of $15/day on Google. This is in addition to anything we charge to manage the ads. In other words, clients pay Google directly for ads.
Yes, this works from anywhere, but the more removed you are from your clients, the harder it is. The easiest clients to land are within driving distance. Landing clients in your own country is harder than local clients, but still very manageable. Landing international clients is the hardest. So, it doesn't matter as much where you are. What matters the most is where your clients are.
What's your ideal web design niche? Find out here: Lee.Blue/niche-quiz
I just closed a client using this! Thanks Lee!!
Excellent video Lee! I'm always open to how I can make my proposals even better. Now I know to focus on those outcomes (sell "futures" so to speak).
I love how real you are
Ha that's a great compliment. Thank you!
Such great content. I've seen your other videos you talked about picking up at least one client per month. Let's say I have 12 after a year but that doesn't account for churn. In your experience, what is a good annual client retention rate? I have seen SEO agencies say they churn as high as 50% per year. Ouch!
Good question.
Lee , you’re amazing! I Lear a lot all the time! Thank you
Thank YOU for hanging out with me here on RUclips and for taking the time to drop an encouraging comment! Much appreciated!
Is there a link to this template?
Great video, Lee. For this style of website option (the $1500 plus $375/month) do you own the website or does the client? How do you ensure the client actually does the month-to-month portion?
For me, the client always owns everything except my plugin and theme licenses. If they cancel, I'll remove the licenses I bought for whatever WordPress plugins and themes I'm using. Then I'll archive/backup the site, and they can take it anywhere they want. The site will still work with out the plugin licenses. If they want continued support and updates, they can buy their own licenses from the plugin developers.
I ensure that the client keeps the month-to-month portion going by showing them the specific results we're getting every month. I never lock anyone into long-term contracts. I've found that I close far more clients by letting them know they can cancel anytime they want. Also, in the rare case that a client needs to cancel, it is usually because something really bad has happened, and they just have to cancel. One time, one of my clients was in a terrible car accident. He called and said he wasn't going to be able to work and, therefore, couldn't serve the leads I was generating for him. So, what if he was on a 12-month contract or something. What am I going to do? Insist he keeps paying me anyway?
So, by not having contracts:
1) I land more clients since they don't feel locked in (lowers perceived risk)
2) I wouldn't enforce the contract even if I had it
Instead of contracts, I just let the results speak for themselves.
@@DoubleStacklove that. Totally makes sense to me as a designer and as a client, I would appreciate and find value in that too.
@@amandaperez4927yea seriously makes so much sense !!
Hey Lee, thanks for the great video! When you discuss goals to pursue, what kind of reasoning do you go through with your clients? How are they evaluated? I mean, why have goals like 'increase revenue by x or y,' etc.? I’d be very interested in understanding this.
This is a great question. Here's the short answer. I need to know how much revenue we need to create in order to calibrate the power of my marketing campaigns. I business that only wants to get 5 new customers per month won't need to spend nearly as much to achieve that goal as a business that wants 50 new clients per month.
Here's the nerdy math answer:
When I set up a lead acquisition funnel for a client, I will know the following stats:
- Cost-per-click on ads - ex. $2.00 per click
- Landing page conversion rate (traffic to email opt-in) - 20%
- Email nurturing conversion rate (email list to call) - 10%
- Close rate on calls - 25%
Now I can do some math.
I use a conversion rate constant R which is the product of multiplying together all of the conversion rates in the funnel. 0.2 x 0.1 x 0.25 = 0.005
Now I know how many clients I'll get from any given amount of traffic (visitors):
Visitors x R = Clients
1000 visitors x 0.005 = 5 clients
Suppose I want to know how much traffic I need for a given number of clients. I just solve for Visitors:
Clients / R = Visitors
If I need to generate 50 clients then...
50 clients / 0.005 = 10,000 visitors
If I know the average cost per click is $2.00, then I know it will cost $20,000 in ads to generate 50 clients. If a client is worth $1,000 then we're spending $20k to make $50k. That's a 2.5x ROI.
Now, suppose I can bump up the call conversion rate from 25% to 50% by getting more qualified leads. That makes my conversion rate constant R become:
0.2 x 0.1 x 0.5 = 0.01
Now, if I need to generate 50 clients...
50 clients / 0.01 = 5,000 visitors
5000 visitors at $2 per click is just $10,000. That $10k still generates $50k in new clients (50 clients x $1k value per client).
I freaking love this stuff. It's SOOOO fun because small changes have huge impacts.
But, back to your question, it all starts with how many clients your client wants to generate. That means they need to think about their capacity so that you know how hard to hit the ball.
@@DoubleStack thanks, very interesting!
@@DoubleStackcan you do a video on this topic please!!! This is very interesting.
Hi Lee, thanks for another awesome video! It really cleared up custom proposals.
I’ve got a few questions:
- What’s the biggest difference between a solution-first and a custom proposal?
- Should pricing and packages shift for different clients within the same niche, or is it better to keep them the same?
- When’s the perfect moment to drop the $500 setup package from your past series-like, is there a sweet spot?
Thanks again, your insights always hit the mark!
Great Questions!
1) Solution First vs Custom
The biggest difference is that a Solution First project starts with you already knowing what the solution is and looking for clients who want the results your solution creates. A custom project is exactly the opposite. You get the client/lead first and then try to figure out a solution that works for them. Custom projects are solution last which is exactly the opposite of solution first.
2) Once you have the solution defined, you normally keep the prices the same for all your clients. The solution is the same. The clients are in roughly the same situation. Everything is basically the same, so the prices stay basically the same as well. There is some nuance to this, but you don't normally change your prices on a per-client basis.
3) I'm not sure I understand this question about dropping the $500 setup package. Can you elaborate on that a little more to make sure I'm actually answering the question you're asking?
@@DoubleStack Thanks, Lee! Your explanation of Solution First vs. Custom really hit home, makes total sense now. I also appreciate the clarity on keeping pricing consistent across clients once the solution is defined.
As for my third question, I was referring to the $500 setup + $375/mo maintenance plan entry-level package you discussed in your earlier series. I was wondering when it's best to offer that package versus something more customized or higher-tier. Is there a specific type of client or scenario where you find it works best, or do you usually start with a different approach?
Thanks again for all the insights-you’ve been a huge help!
Amazing content Lee! What does the base package of website include on a monthly basis? Like whats the 375 for, what do you do for that?
I have a complete workshop that covers all the services we offer in our $10k packages and how we get leads for those projects here: lee.blue/workshop/
Hi Lee, awesome content and info following you for quite som time now. Just to confirm, what commes in that part of the monthly payment? 375, 850, 1200/month? Does the client pay for the cost of the running ads or this is included in those monthly payments? And how do you present/sell that part?
The client pays directly for the ad distribution. They have their credit cards on file with Google. They only pay me for my management of the ad campaigns. I feel like it is important to disconnect my costs from the cost of the ads because my work/time is usually inversely proportional to the ad spend.
In the beginning, the ad spend is really low while I'm optimizing the landing page and funnel. Once we've got the conversion rates where we want them, I don't touch anything, and we crank up the ad spend. When the ads fatigue, I'll start a new campaign with a low ad spend. Test and optimize. Then crank the spend when everything is dialed in. And so on goes the cycle.
When presenting this, I'll tell the client what my recommended as spend is to get started. Once we've got the funnels dialed in I'll recommend that the client approve a boost their spend.
Hey Lee, are you still actively running a web agency? I was under the impression that you only service existing clients
@@FreelanceFadi I’m helping my son start up his agency. I landed him his first client last week. We are working on everything together and it is so much fun! It’s really cool that my own son is a DoubleStacker. 🥳
Hi Lee, great video, it really got my ideas flowing.
When I onboard clients for a website project, I ask them to sign a digital contract / agreement (WP E-Signature) to give me some protection.
I read in one of your replies that you don't lock the customer into any contract, which is great, but do you ask the client to sign any type of agreement should things get sour?
For projects that are this size (up to maybe $25k/year), I don't bother with formally signed contracts. I do put a lot of effort into making sure everyone understands what's going on and who is responsible for what. But I don't get myself overextended. I generally get paid for the work I'm doing as I'm doing it. If the client needs to cancel, I can just stop working on their stuff. I almost never do a ton of work upfront and then essentially let the client finance that work by paying for it over months of time. I also do everything I can to keep things from not going sour:
- I only work with clients I like
- I work with clients who allow me to lead their marketing (not implement their orders)
- I track my results (leads, traffic, etc.)
- I insist on live monthly status meetings where I show the previous month's results and present the next month's goals
This is a situation where distance does NOT make the heart grow fonder. If you fade off into the background, clients begin to think you're not doing anything.
@@DoubleStack great advice, much appreciated 👍
Great stuff. How would you apply this to trade businesses?
I'm assuming you mean as a web designer, you want to onboard clients in trade businesses instead of a personal trainer (health and fitness) client. The proposal structure works exactly the same with the same five parts. The only difference is in the details of what goes in each part. For example, instead of an online nutrition course/membership you'd want to think of something like a VIP membership that includes maintenance and ongoing service. For example, if you're working with an HVAC business, they could offer a VIP program that their customers can subscribe to on a monthly or annual basis that includes annual service/tune-ups, air filters, and discounts on emergency visits.
The overall structure is the same, it's just the details that shift. In DoubleStack, I'm able to write a few of these with you and walk you through the process for your actual leads/prospects. Then, we can roleplay your presentation so you can practice your pitch. Once you do it a few times, it starts to become pretty natural. It's so much fun!
I know it's result driven, but I'm concerned how many website pages that you need to build to get the result? $1500 seems ok for a one pager, but if you need 5 pages with custom design to ensure it is nice and work with the strategy, how can you charge more for the initial set up? It seems like a lot of work to set up a system like this so I just want to know if that cost is realistic. I'm very close to join your Double Stack program.
Hey, Eric! There is nothing wrong with increasing your price if you know you need to build more pages. But, instead of starting with the number of pages, I like to start with the big picture in mind - everything from how new people will discover my client all the way through to how they become a paying client. This covers the full customer journey. Once I know that, I can figure out what pages I'm going to need in order to implement that customer journey. I tend to think in terms of funnels rather than page counts. I'll also spend ridiculous amounts of time on a single landing page. That means the time/cost is not tied very closely to page count as I might spend 20 hours testing and optimizing one landing page.
Therefore, I like to offer three different packages. One package is the "all in" package where I do as much as I can as fast as possible to get the results as soon as I can. This package would have the highest initial price. If that's too much for the client, I'll have lower-tier packages where I take some of the stuff I was going to set up all at once and spread that setup across time to reduce the initial upfront cost. So, instead of building out three full funnels all at once, maybe I'll just build one per month over the next three months - or something like that. So, I'm never reducing the overall power of the project. I'm not watering down the outcome. I'm just stretching the timeline.
Awesome vid. What does the $850.00 PKG typically include? At $100 an hour that would be about 2 hours a week.
It includes a couple of traffic engines like social/organic traffic from stuff like your Google Business Profile and Facebook page and probably at least on PPC ad campaign. It also includes building, optimizing, and managing all the steps in the customer journey from first discovery to paying client.
That means we need some way to capture leads from the traffic. I'd probably start with an email opt-in. Then we need to nurture those leads so they book calls. That's usually done with an email drip campaign.
Since all of that stuff fatigues over time, you're constantly fiddling with it and creating new/fresh stuff.
Thanks
Some clients prefer result- based payment methods.. Once we explain this marketing plan, if the client says if you can give us 20-25 leads within the next 30- 60 days. Then they can choose us.. How can we handle these situations..?Do you work with that type of client?
How are you paying for traffic on $375 per month?
Ads are not included in this package. All the traffic comes from organic sources like Google Business Profile/Google Maps, local searches, social media, etc. When it is time to run ads, we generally recommend local clients start with an ad spend of $15/day on Google. This is in addition to anything we charge to manage the ads. In other words, clients pay Google directly for ads.
Hi lee am from India.. Ur tacttics and smart strategies are simply awesome.. Can i do what you do from India....
Yes, this works from anywhere, but the more removed you are from your clients, the harder it is. The easiest clients to land are within driving distance. Landing clients in your own country is harder than local clients, but still very manageable. Landing international clients is the hardest. So, it doesn't matter as much where you are. What matters the most is where your clients are.